Munib Khanyari

Research Scholar, High Altitudes

BSc. Environmental Biology, McGill UniversityCurrently a Ph.D. candidate at University of Bristol/University of Oxford

Being born amongst the beautiful mountains of Kashmir meant that nature was always a part of my life. I completed my schooling in Mumbai and subsequently obtained a BSc in Environmental Biology (Wildlife Biology) from McGill University, Canada. Through multiple research experiences that took me from the caves of Panama, to rainforests of Costa Rica and the steppe of Central Asia, I realised the importance the environment and its species truly hold both for me and the entire living planet. With the help of these experiences and much more in the making, I aim to work on social and ecological issues/questions in relation to wild species and their populations. The mountains hold a special place in my heart and accentuate this passion of mine. I strongly believe that good science breeds sustained conservation . Someone wise once told me, “if you aren’t drowning, then head towards rougher waters”. This is what I aim to do!

The epizootic disease, sarcoptic mange is a wide-ranging problem across multiple taxa of the world. Its presence in Himalayan species has seldom been recorded and much less understood. This article is the first account of deaths caused by this disease in the cryptic and understudied Himalayan Serow, Capricornis thar, in the Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttarakhand, India. Data of deaths caused by sarcoptic mange in serow was collected by chance encounters with deceased individuals, semi-structured interviews with village communities and retrieving information from the Kedarnath Wildlife Department’s wildlife mortality archives. Between the months of March and October 2016, at least 12 adult serows were confirmed to have died due to sarcoptic mange, a number that according to the local community was higher than ever before for a given year. This account sheds light on the importance to understand long-term trends and mechanism of this disease in such mountain ungulate species, along with studying the ecology and habitat use of the serow, so that sustained conservation initiatives can be implemented.